1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a glass ceramic composition, a glass ceramic sintered body produced by firing the glass ceramic composition, and a monolithic ceramic electronic component including glass ceramic layers produced by firing the glass ceramic composition. In particular, the present invention relates to an improvement for increasing the Q value of a glass ceramic sintered body.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of a glass ceramic composition of the related art is a ceramic composition described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-217426. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-217426 discloses a non-reducing dielectric glass ceramic composition in which a Li2O—RO—B2O3—SiO2-based glass (wherein R is at least one type of element selected from Ba, Ca, and Sr) is added to a (Ca, Sr) (Zr, Ti)O3—MnO—SiO2 ceramic used as a main component.
The glass ceramic composition can be fired at a temperature of about 1,000° C. or lower. As a result of the firing, a glass ceramic sintered body having a high relative dielectric constant, a characteristic that the dielectric constant is stable with respect to temperature, and a high Q value can be obtained. Accordingly, when the glass ceramic composition described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-217426 is used, a metal having a high electrical conductivity, e.g., gold, silver, or copper, can be used in conductor patterns formed inside the glass ceramic sintered body, and thus, a loss due to the resistance of the conductor can be reduced in a radio-frequency range. Therefore, for example, when the glass ceramic composition is used as a monolithic ceramic electronic component defining a resonator, a filter, a capacitor, or other electronic component, excellent radio-frequency characteristics can be achieved.
However, although the glass ceramic composition described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-217426 has excellent characteristics as described above, there is room for further improvement. In particular, a Q value, Qf, of about 5,000 GHz is the limit according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-217426.